state of emergency

[candleflame]

CF - try cannellini beans.   

I'll have a look tomorrow for butter beans and let you know.

PS - just checked Waitrose  - butter beans are available in 'your area'

Thanks Gadget. I've messaged my friend.

[despair]

So are we going to be forcibly confined
Entirely for our own good
Like “A cream cracker under the settee”
Wasn’t Thora Hird really good?
Will there be an OAP catcher
In the streets with net and noose
To intercept ageing miscreants
Out on the fast and loose?
Will age police patrol the internet
Based on the DWP database
(Naturally they won’t be allowed
A tete a tete face to face)?
What will be the punishment
If a pensioner non complies
No pension or social services
Withdrawal of vital supplies?
Will many be hauled to the prison hulks
Those monstrous petri dish liners
Where they will be left to stew
With the virus as fellow diners
Perhaps for the baby boomers
This is their equivalent blitz
A test of spirit and fortitude
In the age of Amazon and Netflix

Roger

[candleflame]

GS glad that you will have the excellent company of Groom soon. Hope your daughter improves and gets her operation as planned too.

We are a mixed age couple - husband is over 70, I'm younger. However we also care for our two under school age grandsons three days a week , while their mum is at work as a teacher. So we will still be needed to look after the boys . Yes we'll get a break in the Easter school holidays however long they end up being, but then it will be back to having them......its just a case of one day at at time really .

[mazi]

I have read that the police will be given powers to detain those not self-isolating, - but where are they going to put these people??

Romilly

I have read that the police will be given powers to detain those not self-isolating, - but where are they going to put these people??

Romilly

Another alternative is to put us on a cruise ship, the seasick amongst us can have a river cruise.

It is a one way trip 

It’s about time our leaders had a sense of proportion, every day in the uk 1000 or so people die, an extra two or three is not going to make a lot of difference,  and, before you say I am callous, at 79 I am a very high risk.

We should be looking to the future and taking an opportunity to give our children and grandchildren a chance to create a better world.

Mike

[mazi]

Perhaps people will be detained in makeshift care homes (requisitioned hotels?) if they don’t comply with self-isolation?

That should be included above

Mike

[Maiden Stone]

Just a thought but Hancock's remit will run only in England. However that may not be too reassuring for those of us in Scotland as the SNP Government usually try to go further than Westminster - could we be looking at 65 or even 60?

Chief Medical Officer for Scotland was interviewed on "Broadcasting House" 9 a.m. Radio 4. I didn't hear whole interview. What I heard was:
1. There's scaremongering - she's not proposing shutting people in their homes for an extended period - it's impractical and is a risk to their general health & well-being. 
2. People over 70 are to be advised to limit face-to-face social interaction depending on individual circumstances. CMO seems to be trusting each person over 70 to make sensible decisions based on what is in their best interests.

Just watched a live-stream video from my church for parishioners who are unable to attend the service in person.

[Viktoria]

Well in the just over three years since I moved here the close neighbours have mostly been pretty good.
But the foul weather does keep people indoors,almost no washing being pegged on lines,gardening not done etc so  some I  have not seen for months.
But also I had my first eye attended to onJan 10th, second Feb 14 th.
So have been pretty quiet .
I am sure some would help in difficult circumstances, but it is going to be hard for them too.
One a teacher and OH a Chef, two very young children.
Another travels internationally for his job,wife at home with very young  baby and toddler.
One,my next door neighbour 93, housebound.A very good daughter but I can and do help a bit, mostly a bit of company and a laugh.
All have their own problems to cope with.
I know my daughter will be worried to death  being down in Suffolk,at a difficult time for any one running their own business,their loyal employees
with families etc are of prime consideration.
But I am O.K at the moment and send good wishes to those we know of on RootsChat with special problems,quite s few aren’t there .
Also anyone who will be badly affected.
I missed the Andrew Marr show.
 I can’t see that quarantining the elderly will do very much good but it will do a great deal of harm in a different way.
To do that it needs to be started from the sure position   that all  old people have a good stock of basic essentials, and from a couple of my friends who have since died,and for whom I did some shopping I know full well that is not the case for all too many old people.
A couple of days after the usual shopping and they had nothing into make even a basic meal like beans on toast,not even toast sometimes.
Believe me ,their cupboards were bare.
They could not afford to stock up, it was week to week and come shopping day there was almost no food in at all.
I know our age makes us vulnerable,but so does isolation imposed without a safety net of sorts ,re contacts, food supply, general health, etc.
I get my many prescriptions delivered( so many  they are   too heavy to carry! ::)once a month, I need regular health checks and ongoing treatment for my eyes,  do I and  many others fail to turn up mid long term treatment
which will make much more serious the original conditions and cost the NH much more ,presuming irreversible damage does not occur.
It is mad , will elderly cancer patients undergoing treatment have to miss appointments ?And will it stop there ,will all patients young or old eventually be prevented from attending.
The Christie Hospital is so far from many people whom it serves, it is a day’s  Journeying for very many.
No ambulances,but public transport ,so mixing with all ages when through treatment patients are already very vulnerable.
Don’t know the answer but can’t see quarantining the elderly as being anything more than a drop in the ocean and the treatment worse than the disease
I am off to the shop,if I get  arrested you will know as I win’t be posting for the foreseeable future.
BUT, how am I supposed to know I am not allowed out. ? I missed the Andrew Marr  show and nothing more about we oldies as yet on TV so I shall  venture forth regardless  .
 If  I get arrested I might even get a lift home in a Police car.

That will be nice !
Cheerio, good wishes to those with special concerns, and those who are ill or have relatives who are ill - many many kind thoughts are winging your way from the family of RootsChat.
Viktoria.

[Nick_Ips]

It’s about time our leaders had a sense of proportion, every day in the uk 1000 or so people die, an extra two or three is not going to make a lot of difference,  and, before you say I am callous, at 79 I am a very high risk.

I'm reluctant to spread fear, but on the other hand it isn't helping anyone if the idea goes round that this disease is nothing to worry about.

Based on widely reported figures the mortality rate from COVID-19 is about 1%.

None of us has any immunity to it, but if we are lucky then only around 70% or so will get it.

70% of the UK population is approximately 46.5 million people. If the population and the government did nothing and 1% of those people died then we are talking about the deaths of 465,000 people.

Given the rate of spread we've seen elsewhere (where governments have been working hard to contain it), the period of infection would be complete in something like two months or less.

465,000 people dying over a period of two months equates to somewhere around 7,600 deaths per day.

It isn't just an extra two or three per day they are talking about.

Hopefully it will turn out the mortality rate is much lower than 1% for the general population, what they don't yet know is how many people have been infected without showing any symptoms.

But even reducing the mortality rate from 1% down to 0.1% could still equate to deaths counted in hundreds per day rather than single digit numbers. That kind of rate is what is being seen in countries like Italy, and possibly Iran.

I'm just grateful we have scientists and health workers who are doing the very best they can to slow down the rate of infection and give as many people as possible the chance of living.

Please, listen to the official advice, err on the side of caution, don't get unduly alarmed, stay safe.

[smudwhisk]

It's not just the over 70s there talking about making self-isolate, but those under that age with pre-existing conditions. 

That's likely to include myself as I'm on immune-suppressant drugs for the autoimmune condition Rheumatoid Arthritis.  Mind you I'm also awaiting a total knee replacement op due beginning of next month which I think is likely to get cancelled although its at a specialist orthopaedic hospital. 

Mind you I've only been into work four days since the end of September but that's because I can hardly walk.  That said work are very happy for people to work from home 'cos of lack of parking spaces, it is actually official policy you are not supposed to park on site more than 4 days out of 5.  Out of my three team colleagues, two others are high risk as one has Type 1 Diabetes and the other Asthma and High Blood Pressure.  The latter has been working from home more days than in over recent weeks but the other has been onsite most days, he hates working from home.  I suspect though after this week when he's on holiday even he may be working from home more.

Mind you I feel sorry for our team leader, he's due to go to Australia on holiday for two and a half weeks from 1 April and has been really looking forward to it.  With their 14 day isolation policy just implemented that's obviously going to be cancelled.